On Monday, my syracuse.com colleagues Chris Carlson and Michael Cohen were each assigned to make the case for Terrel Hunt or Drew Allen to be the starting quarterback for the Syracuse University football team in 2013.

Who should be the starting quarterback for the Syracuse football team?

Both of them.

Terrel Allen. Drew Hunt. However you want to label it, a dual-threat attack could be the way to go for Syracuse at quarterback. Should Syracuse start Drew Allen or Terrel Hunt, or should they play both quarterbacks?Now, let me say this off the bat: Normally I am not a fan of the dual-quarterback thing. I think a football team needs to know who is in command. Looking at a different face throughout the game can get confusing for an offensive line and receivers as they get used to the tendencies of one QB over the other.

It can also take a quarterback out of his rhythm to sit him on the bench just for the sake of putting the other guy in to mix it up.

I get all that, trust me.

But I think Syracuse is in a unique circumstance that calls for both to get playing time.

The clock is ticking on Allen as he is here for only one season. His arm strength is hard to ignore. When Scott Shafer makes a comment after a recent practice about a 70-yard pass he threw, that's hard to ignore.

While the Syracuse receivers may not be fully in synch with Allen yet, that chemistry is coming together more and more every day. Syracuse has receivers that can get down field in a hurry. Adrian Flemming and Jeremiah Kobena in particular have shown the ability to stretch the field.

Terrel Hunt does not have close to the arm strength that Allen has. If Syracuse can't stretch the field, it will put a lot of pressure on the run game to produce. And every team that plays Syracuse knows that will be the strength of the offense as it is.

That said, there are things Hunt can do well that don't suit Allen. Hunt hasn't shown me anything that says he has full command of the job, but he is improving steadily and has shown enough that he deserves to be on the field in some capacity.

Offensive coordinator George McDonald can get more creative with Hunt in taking advantage of his versatility. So much of college football these days is in short yardage passing situations. Ashton Broyld and Brisley Estime give him intriguing weapons at the H-back slot to work with. Beckett Wales is a reliable tight end. Jarrod West will be asked to be the main receiver and pile up a lot of YAC. Christopher Clark can get open and will be mostly used in short-yardage situations.

If you need to keep the chains moving and play a low-risk game, Hunt is the guy. He has shown the ability to move the offense and has more trust from the team over Allen right now since he has been around longer.

If anything, this shows what Syracuse is losing in Ryan Nassib. He could deliver the long ball when called on, although his deep ball wasn't seen as a strength. He was a master of the aggressive, short-game attack installed by Doug Marrone and Nathaniel Hackett. His ability to process a lot of information in a short period of time and read defenses well earned him a lot of trust from the coaching staff.

Of course, there is recent precedent for the QB shuffle at Syracuse. Greg Paulus was the starting quarterback in 2009, but Ryan Nassib got reps. This was done to take advantage of Paulus' short-term eligibility and to ease Nassib into a role he would eventually hold full-time.

Well, here we sit in another transition year, and I think that tolerance for patience and creativity would serve Syracuse well, even though they are further along as a program now then when Doug Marrone had to save a sinking ship in 2009.

Hunt is more ready for the job now than Nassib was then, but I think McDonald would be wasting a big talent if he simply left Allen on the bench.

Hunt would still get reps with an eye on being a three-year "starter" but wouldn't have the pressure of being the man before he was ready for it.

Sure, defenses would eventually figure out which quarterback would be on the field for which situation. If they see Allen run on the field, they will know a big pass is coming. If Hunt is on the field, something within 10-15 yards is coming.

But that's easier said than done to make that adjustment in the heat of battle. Mixing it up, if done at the right pace, can throw an opposing defense off balance.

If Allen or Hunt eventually shows they are the guy, then McDonald can abandon the quarterback shuffle and stick with the better QB.

But if he sticks with one quarterback for the sake of it, either out of ego or conventional thinking, you could be wasting talent.

The Syracuse offense is going to need to be flexible in a season that will be full of adjustments (new coaching staff, new league).

If Scott Shafer truly believes in doing what it takes to win, then the dual-quarterback option should be on the table for the Syracuse football team as it begins the 2013 season.